The present invention relates to merchandizing displays in general and more particularly to an anti-pilferage display system which is intended to inhibit large scale pilferage of items contained in individual packages which are supported in alignment as from a peg board or other support.
In the field of merchandising, a common method of displaying items which are the product of shrink packaging, or other method of attachment to a display card is that of supporting the items from a single rod or a plurality of rods extending from a peg board or other wall surface. The items may have a single hole or plurality of holes punched in the retaining card and are aligned one behind the other by inserting a rod through the hole, or holes in the card, producing a display wherein the item and its packaging information are readily viewable by the customer.
In such merchandising displays as described above, the items are readily removed from a supporting rod by moving the opening in the card past the end of the rod allowing the customer a simple means of obtaining a desired item without the aid of store personnel.
In displaying a large number of items in the manner previously discussed, a problem exists in protecting the displayed merchandise from theft, even when the display is located in a high traffic area of the store. While the pilferage of one or perhaps two items would be of concern, recently retail outlets have been experiencing large scale pilferage of relatively expensive items from display systems of the type described above. With a plurality of items supported from a rod as is the common method of display, a large number of items, or the entire row of items may be quickly moved forward from the rod end in a single motion while attracting little attention from store personnel, or customers nearby.
While solutions to this problem have included the employment of means for locking the rod end, such devices require obtaining the attention and aid of store personnel in order to purchase an item, which is often time consuming and therefore may discourage purchase of an item from a display containing such locking means.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an anti-pilferage display device which allows the customer to remove only one, or any other predetermined number of items from the display device in a single motion, to prevent pilfering of a large number of items from the display.
Another object of the invention is to provide an antipilferage display device as set forth above which allows the customer to remove items from the device without the aid of store personnel.
A further object of the invention is to provide an antipilferage fixture to be employed with those display devices having a peg board or other support with a rod extending outwardly therefrom, which fixture is effective to inhibit removal of more than a predetermined number of items from the display with a single motion.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide an antipilferage fixture of the type described which is simple to manufacture and easily assembled to a peg board commonly used in such display devices.